Sopwith Salamander

TOKO's 1:72 Injection - Moulded Kit, Built OOB. April 2000.

 Oh dear, yet another Salamander dares to make its presence felt on the WWW.

To be fair, this was built as I heard the news that TOKO had ceased production of their kits and that the team responsible for their development had decided to take on the task of continuing production.  I hope they can make the struts fit this time.

The kit was built straight out of the box, but took several weeks because of interruptions from various extraneous sources.  The birth of my daughter; my two - year - old's tantrums; the WW1 mailing list; promotion at work and a certain madness brought on by sleep deprivation - namely that I was so tired that I couldn't sleep...

Well, I finally put the insomnia to use.
The kit actually went together well. I was amazed to find that the struts seemed to be an exact fit.  That is until I looked at the resulting wing stagger - too much. I had to break the top wing off and start again, this time with a jig made from balsa and fresh strut material.  I'm no perfectionist, as you are all aware by now, but FOR GOD'S SAKE..!
I wish these kits fitted better.

Anyroadup...the paint scheme was followed slavishly from the instructions - I used Humbrol enamels on this one for once, outlining the colours with a 'Write 4 All' pen bought from Morrison's supermarket.  Having left the pen to dry for a week or more enabled me to put a coat of Future polish on and apply the kit decals (which, I have to say were flawless.)
The only additions were the control horns, elastic - thread rigging and a few bits of heat stretched sprue to provide the tailplane braces missing from the kit.

Not a masterpiece, more a mantelpiece.